School Hopes 'Recess Coach' Will Pay Off in Classroom

May 10, 2010 — -- In the orderly halls of Stephens Elementary in Little Rock, Ark., principal Sharon Brooks steers a tight ship: Students dressed in khaki-and-blue uniforms quietly weave between classrooms in single file.

But every day at 12:30 p.m., when recess rolls around, all of that well-defined order goes out the window.

"When they hit the playground, their behavior just goes in reverse, and we have some trouble controlling things out there," said Brooks.

For many of its 460 students, Stephens Elementary is a sanctuary -- an oasis of calm in the middle of Little Rock's gang-ridden 12th Street neighborhood.

"It can sometimes get real bad over here," said Alex Hamilton, a security officer at the school. "I'd say that 90 percent of our kids have been exposed to some sort of violence."

But the school's recess discipline problems are hardly unique. According to a Gallup poll released earlier this year, 89 percent of discipline-related incidents at schools happen either during lunch or recess.

Now, Stephens Elementary is getting a major "recess rehab." Charles Cooper, who's known as "Coach Coop," is a recess coach with Playworks, a nonprofit that specializes in bringing order to the playground by teaching kids how to play.

Cooper came to Stephens for a weeklong trial run to convince staff and students that when push comes to shove, healthy, productive play is still possible.

"We'll break it in there little by little," Cooper said. "The first two days you're building rapport with the staff and the students. Not everybody is onboard immediately, some people have to see it first."

Hamilton, the school security officer, is responsible for reining in chaos and breaking up any fights on the blacktop.

"It could quickly escalate to kids getting upset with each other," said Hamilton. "And it could go bad real quick. Sometimes they will bring the problems at home to school. It's just part of the environment."

A bad recess follows kids back into the classroom, said teacher Steven Helmick.

"Because something has happened outside that has caused them to be frustrated the rest of the day... [I am] not getting anything else out of them," Helmick said. "They're done."

In the last year alone, there were 108 suspensions at Stephens -- sometimes as many as seven a week -- and almost all of them stem from playground fights.